ECKHART’S SERMONS

I

THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF GOD

St John vi. 44.—“No one can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ hath in the Gospel spoken with His own blessed lips these words, which signify, “No man can come to Me
unless My Father draw him.” In another place He says, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” Therefore whoever cometh
to the Son cometh to the Father. Further, He saith, “I and the Father are One. Therefore whomsoever the Father draweth, the
Son draweth likewise.” St Augustine also saith, “The works of the Holy Trinity are inseparable from each
other.” Therefore the Father draweth to the Son, and the Son draweth to the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost draweth to the
Father and the Son; and each Person of the Trinity, when He draweth to the Two Others, draweth to Himself, because the Three
are One. The Father draweth with the might of His power, the Son draweth with His unfathomable wisdom, the Holy Ghost draweth
with
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His love. Thus we are drawn by the Sacred Trinity with the cords of Power, Wisdom and Love, when we are
drawn from an evil thing to a good thing, and from a good thing to a better, and from a better thing to the best of all. Now
the Father draws us from the evil of sin to the goodness of His grace with the might of His measureless power, and He needs
all the resources of His strength in order to convert sinners, more than when He was about to make heaven and earth, which
He made with His own power without help from any creature. But when He is about to convert a sinner, He always needs the
sinner’s help. “He converts thee not without thy help,” as St Augustine says.

Therefore deadly sin is a breach of nature, a death of the soul, a disquiet of the heart, a weakening of power, a blindness
of the sense, a sorrow of the spirit, a death of grace, a death of virtue, a death of good works, an aberration of the spirit,
a fellowship with the devil, an expulsion of Christianity, a dungeon of hell, a banquet of hell, an eternity of hell. Therefore,
if thou committest a deadly sin thou art guilty of all these and incurrest their
consequences. Regarding the first point: Deadly sin is a breach of nature, for every man’s nature is an image and likeness
and mirror of the Trinity, of Godhead and of eternity. All these together are marred by a deadly sin; therefore, it is a breach
of nature. Such sin is also the death of the soul, for death is to lose life. Now God is the life of the soul, and deadly
sin separates from God; therefore it is a death of the soul. Deadly sin is also a disquiet of the heart, for everything rests
nowhere except in its own proper place; and the proper resting-place of the soul is nowhere except in God as St Augustine
saith, “Lord! Thou hast made us for Thyself, therefore we may not rest anywhere save in Thee.” Deadly sin is also a weakening
of the powers, for by his own power no one can throw off the load of sin nor restrain himself from committing sin. It is also
a blindness of the sense, for it prevents a man recognizing how brief is the space of time that can be spent in the pleasure
of voluptuousness, and how long are the pains of hell and the joys of heaven. Deadly sin is also a death of all grace, for
whenever such a sin is committed, the soul is bereft of all grace. Similarly, it is the death of all virtue and good works,
and an aberration of the spirit.

It is also a fellowship with the Devil, for everything hath fellowship with its like; and sin maketh the soul and Satan resemble
each other. It is also an expulsion of Christianity, for it depriveth the sinner of all the profit that comes from Christianity.
It is also a dungeon of hell, for if the soul remain in the purity in which God created her, neither angel nor devil may rob
her of her freedom. But sin confines it in hell. Sin is also an eternity of hell, for
eternity is in the
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will, and were it not in the will, it would not be in the consciousness.

Now, people say when they commit sin, that they do not intend to do so always; they intend to turn away from sin. That is
just as though a man were to kill himself and suppose that he could make himself alive again by his own strength. That is,
however, impossible; but to turn from sin by one’s own power and come to God is still much more impossible. Therefore, whosoever
is to turn from sin and come to God in His heavenly kingdom, must be drawn by the heavenly Father
with the might of His divine power. The Father also draws the Son who comes to help us with His grace, by stimulating our
free will to turn away from, and hate sin, which has drawn us aside from God, and from the immutable goodness of the Godhead.
Then, if she is willing, He pours the gift of His grace into the soul, which renounces all her misery and sin, and all her
works become living. Now, this grace springs from the centre of Godhead and the Father’s heart, and flows perpetually, nor
ever
ceases, if the soul obeys His everlasting love. Therefore He saith in the prophets: “I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” Out of the overflow of His universal love He desires to draw all
to Himself, and to His Only-begotten Son, and to the Holy Ghost in the joy of the heavenly kingdom. Now, we should know that
before our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Heavenly Father drew men with all His might for five thousand, two hundred years;
and
yet, as far as we know, brought not one into the heavenly kingdom. So, when the Son saw that the Father had thus strongly
drawn men and even wearied Himself, and yet not succeeded, He said to the Father: “I will draw them with the cords of a man.”
It was as though He said, “I see well, Father, that Thou with all Thy might, canst not succeed, therefore will I myself draw
them with the cords of a man.”

Therefore the Son came down from heaven, and was incarnate of a Virgin, and took upon Him all our bodily weaknesses, except
sin and folly, into which Adam had cast us; and out of all His words and works and limbs and nerves, He made a cord, and drew
us so skillfully, and so heartily, that the bloody sweat poured from His sacred Body. And when He had drawn men without ceasing
for three and thirty years, He saw the beginnings of a movement and the redemption of all
things that would follow. Therefore He said, “And I, if I be lifted up on the Cross, will draw all men unto Me.” Therefore
He was stretched upon the Cross, and laid aside all His glory, and whatever might hinder His drawing men.

Now, there are three natural means of attraction with which Christ on the Cross drew to Himself between the third and the
ninth hour, more people than He had drawn
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before during the three and thirty years of His life. The first means by which He draws is affinity,
that affinity which brings creatures of the same species together, and like to its like. With this
cord of affinity he drew men to the Godhead, Whom He always resembles. In order that God may
draw more to Himself, and forget His wrath, the Son saith, “Beloved Father, seeing that Thou wouldest not forgive sins because
of all the former sacrifices offered, lo I, Thine Only begotten Son, Who resemble Thy Godhead in all things, in Whom Thou
hast hidden all the riches of divine love, I come to the Cross, that I may be a living sacrifice before Thine eyes; that out
of Thy fatherly compassion Thou mayest bend and look on Me, Thine only Son, and on My Blood flowing from My wounds, and slake
the fiery sword with which in the angel’s hands Thou hast barred the way to Paradise, that all who have repented and bewailed
their sins through Me, may enter therein.”

The second means of attraction which He used is Emptiness, as we see when we place one end of a hollow pipe in water, and
draw up it by suction; the water runs up the stem to the mouth, because the emptiness of the pipe, from which the air has
been drawn, draws the water to itself. So Our Lord Jesus Christ made Himself empty that He might wisely draw all things to
Himself. Therefore He let all the blood that was in His Body flow out, and so attracted to Himself all the
compassion and grace that was in His Father’s heart, so completely and profitably as to suffice for the whole world. Accordingly,
the Father said, “My compassion will I never forget,” and further, “Now, My Son, be bold and strong that Thou mayest lead
the people altogether into the land which I have promised, the land of heavenly joys, the land which floweth with the honey
of My Godhead, and with the milk of Thy manhood.”

The third means of attraction is this—that as we see the sun draw up the mists from the earth to heaven, so the heart of our
Lord Jesus Christ waxed hot as a fiery furnace upon the Cross, so fiercely burned the flame of love which He felt towards
the whole world. Thus, with the heat of His love, from which nothing could be hidden, so intense was it—He drew the whole
world to Himself. Never did our Lord Jesus Christ display such great love as when He suffered the
torture of the Cross when He gave His life for us, and washed our sins with His precious Blood. Therefore with the cords of
Love, He drew us all to Himself upon the Cross that those who feel the drawing of His death and martyrdom might live with
Him in everlasting felicity.

Now when the Holy Spirit saw that the Only Begotten Son of the Father had drawn so wisely that He had won to Himself all things
in heaven and earth, He also felt impelled by His own love and kindness to
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draw. Therefore He said, “I will also draw with My cords and My net.” So He made a net of the seven high attributes of the
Father, of the seven graces of the Son, of His own seven gifts, and of the seven Christian virtues. Thus He assures us that
we
shall never perish, for we are so caught by His goodness that He expels from us all the evil works of the flesh, and produces
in us His fruits, so that we gain the reward of everlasting life. May the Father of His love, and the Son of His grace, and
the Holy Spirit with His fellowship, grant us to be worthy of the same. Amen.